Wednesday, March 3, 2010

'I took the photos around Ash Wednesday 2010,' wrote Greg Miller. 'What appears to be the living, suffering Jesus being crucified on a tree. You can see his arms, face, beard, crown of thorns. It's a knot on a tree that I walk by every day, but have told almost no one about. I didn't want to attract a crowd there.'

A poem by the Welsh poet R S Thomas

The Coming

And God held in his hand A small globe. Look, he said. The son looked. Far off, As through water, he saw A scorched land of fierce Colour. The light burned There: crusted buildings Cast their shadows; a bright Serpent, a river Uncoiled itself, radiant With slime. On a bare Hill a bare tree saddened The sky. Many people Held out their thin arms To it, as though waiting For a vanished April To return to its crossed Boughs. The son watched Them. Let me go there, he said-

You are free to decide where and with whom you stand. You do not, however, have the right to try to change the Catholic Church to suit your opinions or wishes. No matter how brilliant you are, you are not above the Magisterium. No matter how persuasive the political position, you cannot ignore the law of the Church and the Natural Law. Doctrine and Orthodoxy may be distasteful words in this age of personal freedoms, but if you call yourself Catholic, you need to know what Catholic doctrine actually says and follow it.